Review: Boystown (Season Six) by Jake Biondi

Boystown is a continuing serial where each season is based off of the ones before it. While this review of season six will remain spoiler free, it is inevitable that details from previous seasons will be discussed.

This season opens with a recap of events that closed out season five and, with everything that happened, that was certainly needed. While rescue comes to search the waters for the men that went overboard, there is another rescue going after the explosion that rocked the hotel. The search is also on for Cole, who had been abducted, and baby Hope who was kidnapped from the hospital, while Keith gets Michael to the hospital just in time after he collapsed. Camille is battling arrest charges after claiming she was set up by Rachel, while Jensen is caught by Hugo holding Rachel’s bloody body. The mystery of the skeleton unearthed at the winery continues as the Mancini’s try to conceal and Camille tries to uncover the secret, as well as just what that highly protected key opens.

Cardinal Franco Armani arrives in Boystown and is set on reclaiming Patrick, a priest he mentored and has a personal interest in while Emmet learns all of Patrick’s secrets. Max doesn’t seem to know what or who he wants as the closest warm body will do just fine for him. Jesse is caught between trying to find his mother, trying to find Cole, and maintaining his relationship with Logan as his relationship with his father, Max, might never fully mend.

It’s just another day in Boystown were the stakes are continually higher and the drama is powered up to an all time high.

I read season five of Boystown over six months ago and since then well over a hundred books have crossed my e-reader. I was concerned about remembering all the fine details and connections that this series offers. While I did go back and read the last episode from season five again to refresh my memory, I really shouldn’t have been concerned. Biondi quickly catches us up in the beginning of the newest season and then propels the story forward. I have come to embrace that the Boystown series is a place that you can leave reality at the door and sink into a world of high stakes drama where everything is over the top.

This season Biondi completely went for it and he opens the book with an explosive scene and it’s not one that is often seen. He then constantly keeps the tension high throughout each and every page. The story lines remain consistent and twists are revealed as we are led in one direction only to be redirected as scenes play out. It’s not possible to reference one storyline without the others and then winding up in a spiral of spoiler material, so I am just going to steer clear of details on any of the plots. There are so many characters and so many things going on all at once and I was intrigued and captivated by each and every story line.

Being that this is the sixth season of this serial, I have given myself over to the nighttime drama feel of it and it’s not a book I am checking for accuracy. But, a couple of areas did particularly stand out for me. The first being that it’s not so easy to abduct a baby from a hospital these days and then the mother remains fairly calm, moves in with a new man, and goes back to work at the same hospital with no repercussions coming back to the hospital at all. Terrible things happen to many of the characters and there isn’t a whole lot of mourning time and there were watered down emotional responses that were lacking for a hard hitting drama. Also, and know I have mentioned this in other reviews of this series, but the lack of condom use for most of the book is glaringly apparent and made to be noticeable. There are many characters that have multiple partners in quick succession and the lack of protection in some places became a little much for me for as fast as partners were being swapped. There were a few other details as well that I questioned, but I’ll let those have dramatic soap opera license.

Now I’m good with waiting, but this finale had me wanting to know all of the things because…yeah well…I can’t tell you. It takes true talent to continually pull all of these storylines together and at the end still leave me so ready for more. Biondi skillfully recaptured my fascination with this world in this exceptionally executed season. If you’re fond of nighttime dramas where the foundation beneath your feet is constantly shifting and anything and everything can happen and most certainly does, then Boystown is where you want to be.

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Follow

Sponsors

Search

Shop with Joyfully Jay

You can help support Joyfully Jay by using the following links to make your purchases at Amazon or Amazon UK. you can also help us out by shopping at the iBooks store or in the LGBT romance section of iBooks specifically, or in the main iTunes store more broadly. We will receive a small percentage back that will go to help fund our blog activities. Thanks so much!